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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

Would you recommend the product? no | Price you paid?: None indicated | Rating: 4

Pros:

Easy Install and detected most hardware correctly.

Cons:

Bloated, No power over the install or initial configuration, Not friendly to older hardware.

I obtained a fee copy of Lindows 4.5 Developer Edition from the Lindows.com website thru a promotion and after installing, am very happy I did not have to buy this particular distro to test out.

After burning the iso to cd and then starting the installation, the install is as basic as it gets. I opted to install this on a 475mhz K6-II laptop with 128 megs of RAM. Even though the recommended specs it suggest is 800mhz with 256 megs of RAM, I soon realized that they aren't kidding. It is slow, very slow.

During the install, it launches of course a GUI install that pretty much gives you 3 steps to install. First it asks if you want it to take over the whole disk or disks and or you can select a partition to install to in "Advanced Mode". I opted for the Advanced mode to see how well their partition tool was which to my suprise only gives you the option to select a particular partition to install the OS to. No other options, no configuring of your disk, etc. I find it only useful if your dual booting and you've already allocated a free partition to install the OS to. So much for the Advanced Mode.

The next step is to put in your computer name and administrator password. Of course it doesn't mention root and of course no option to add other users.

After this, it proceeds to the installation which gives you no configuration of what you want installed, configured, etc. It just simply installs I suppose everything. That's less steps than Windows and less options really than a basic Windows install.

The install took about 30 minutes which was not suprising since of course my machine is slightly older and didn't meet their specs but for a desktop distro, I would think they could slim this install down and have it run on older hardware since most don't have the latest and greatest, especially if your not a gamer or the like.

Upon reboot after the installation, it seemed to find my wireless nic but yet booting up, I had to end up modprobing the correct module and then hand configuring my network before it would work to connect to the internet.

Upon connecting, they don't really describe their browser, mail client and such with detail but I can tell its just a hacked version of Mozilla or Konqueror most likely. I guess one nice thing is the GUI browser to samba shares in which it detected.

I didn't realize that you do have to pay for the so-called wonderful Click and Run which to me seems like its just a front end web-browser gui to their website to click on packages to install, which most likely installs via apt-get on the backend which you can get for free using Debian or any other distro on 95% of the packages they offer. Some of the others like StarOffice I do give them credit for getting customers discounts on the price you have to pay.

There's not much else to really describe this distro really except that is basic to install, the hacked GUI is KDE with tons of Lindows logo's and I found nothing to be developer about it really. I would think this is a great OS for people who don't want to use Windows or get a cheap alternative but for anyone who wants to learn Linux, I highly recommend to not waste your time.

This is a grandma made easy distro to install and use and I really find the Click and Run to actually be a ripoff, since anyone with half a mind would realize are free and could probably learn how to install with just a little more brain power consumption.